Antonio Banderas is more than one of our greatest Spanish ambassadors. He is a true international superstar; an accomplished actor, director, and businessman. A sex symbol that takes great pride in his philanthropic efforts on behalf of those less fortunate. Banderas stars in “Puss In Boots” now playing at a theater near you.

One of his biggest sources of funding for charitable donations is Antonio Banderas Fragrances, a successful venture started fourteen years ago with fragrance giant Puig that now includes his latest launch, The Secret.

To celebrate the launch and generate additional revenue Banderas and Puig organized a traveling exhibition of the actor’s photographs. With camera in hand, Banderas explores another side of his artistic identity. Revealed through the notes of his fragrances, attraction and seduction discover a new path as he unveils another passion: photography.

Thanks to his talent and imagination the new “Secrets on black” exhibit is a feast for the eyes. As exclusive photographer, and the project’s artistic director, Antonio Banderas delivers an intimate and personal vision of the fascinating feminine world through a unique masculine perspective.

The series consists of 23 photographs in which the woman’s role grabs the limelight. With an unyielding emphasis on women’s innate powers of seduction, Banderas experiments with historical codes and references. Carmen, Don Juan Tenorio, La Maja Desnuda and the Barbero de Sevilla are some of the Spanish figures whose images and legacies are reconsidered in Banderas’s new definition of masculinity.

This initiative is part of an international traveling exhibition open to the public. In each country visited seven limited edition photographs will be auctioned to raise funds for non-profit organizations. In the US the seven works were auctioned via Charity Buzz, with all proceeds benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, a charity partner that Banderas has committed to supporting long term.

HOMBRE had the opportunity to attend the launch and experience the exhibit.  In an exclusive interview the actor shares his motivation, his plans and how at 50, the best is yet to come.

HOMBRE: Talk to us about your new project with Puig?

Antonio Banderas: This is our seventh project, we’ve been working together now for over fourteen years and our relationship has worked because it has been inspired on a commercial venture but at the same time we’ve tried to give a much larger context to our relationship. That has been to provide funding to all the charities we’ve worked with, as is the case this time when we are working with Broadway Cares or in Argentina with a children’s hospital or if we go to Chile we may do something with UNICEF. At the same time we try to support the arts. We’ve worked with the Los Angeles International Film Festival. Now Puig proposed to me to do a photo exhibit which you can now see.  They knew this was a passion of mine, that I had moved around in the outskirts of what is my profession. I had never thought about showing it or exposing it but with a reason like to support Broadway Cares I thought it was fantastic.  After New York the exhibition will move to Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, and Madrid; and as the photographs sell, all the money will go to a charity.  I don’t want any of that.  My only plan is to do a book which will be out in 2011 and will have a series of poems that I wrote based on the photographs.

H: How long has photography interested you?

AB: It’s been a long time, I never thought of exhibiting.  I make them for myself and I maintain my stories, my poems, my albums, my work, for myself. And nobody ever offered me the opportunity to shoot in a studio.  I shoot snapshots.  Since I travel so much I love to lose myself with my camera and I have a very important collection of photographs from all the places I’ve roamed. Many places in Latin America, Israel, New York, LA; and I love it; but I do it for myself, for my friends. It’s something very personal.

H: And with the fragrance, what inspires you? What brings out the essence?

H: They have tried to adapt to my vital process and one of those vital processes is called 50 years old; that I have just turned (laughs). They have tried to give this fragrance a more mature scent.  It’s very curious because I don’t know – and will never know – how to make a scent, it’s a very beautiful and tough profession. What we do is talk about ideas and the perfume makers conceptualize everything and make it real.  This is about my interests. It’s a modern scent on one side; mature, mysterious. Seduction with a touch of normalcy that is not forced, and at the same time with a sense of humor. I don’t understand life without a touch of irony. We all know the end of this movie called life; unfortunately it always ends badly (laughs). Therefore along the way, let’s laugh a little. They take all those concepts and create something unique.

H: So when they came to you for the first time and said “we want to create a Banderas fragrance,” what did you think?

H: At the beginning I wasn’t sure.  I didn’t know whether to do it or not. But when I went to Barcelona and established contact with the family I began to like it quite a bit because it’s a family product. Puig is born as a family project. Besides it’s a Spanish corporation that is trying to make a statement throughout the world, so I began to like it.  First because of the personal relationship with the family, then for the opportunity to help a Spanish company grow internationally and then, why deny it, it would be stupid; this is a commercial venture that at the same time has allowed me to have some kind of freedom. Because of it I can say, ‘well right now I don’t really need to do this project.’ I can direct for instance, or lose myself in theater for a year on Broadway and not have to worry about finances.  That’s the truth.

And then they always pay attention to all the proposals I give them that we discussed earlier. Charity, a support of the arts; they have maintained that.  They’re Catalans (laughs). They’re very serious in their word and we have worked well together.  We’ve had great success. 

H: I’m sure! You’re on the seventh fragrance!

AB: And it’s number one in several countries. As a matter of fact, someone was telling me the other day that the only scent that has been associated with a personality for so long has been Elizabeth Taylor’s.

There are scents that last two, three years and then they fail. But with ours we have lasted fourteen years and we have a very bright outlook for the future. It’s a project that still has quite a ways to go.

H: I congratulate you because I really like the scent. Now, tell me about “Puss in Boots,” the last “Shrek” and other projects.

AB: The last “Shrek” opened really well.  I thought it was very elegant of the studio to announce its ending. When the second one came out Jeffrey Katzenberg realized the popularity of Puss in Boots and told me, let’s do a spin off.

H: How do you feel about it?

AB: Really good, because the concept is very different.  In reality this will be an epic film. Epic in the genre of Sergio Leone, the style of filmmaking from the 60’s with the screens divided, it’s very cool.  We’re even going to see Puss in Boots when we has a kitten, you’ll see him in an orphanage, we’ll see him growing up and we’ll understand why he becomes the character we all know and love.

H: When is the release planned?

AB: The film opens November 4, 2011.

Antonio Banderas Photographed exclusively for HOMBRE by Bradley Thurber
Location: Instituto Cervantes, NYC www.nuevayork.cervantes.es
Special Thanks: Ambika Kumar, Lauren Kless, Rebecca Levitt, Bratskeir & Company.